Signs of Summer

I had my first Mint Magnum of the summer today. I don't actually like 'normal' Magnums very much, as the ice cream is too creamy and there is too much of it - but the mint ones are much better. They taste of mint rather than cream, although they would be better a bit smaller, too - either that, or with more chocolate and less middle.

The other signs of summer wandering round the streets today were less appealing. Admittedly, I'm no oil painting, but why do perfectly sane, attractive people suddenly completely lose it the moment the sun comes out? I saw two very attractive women with pinko-orange legs and white arms; and at least half a dozen who seemed to be wearing things out of a dressing up box - gold sandals which were a size or two too big, or a beaded kaftan the colour of one of Margaret Thatcher's old suits. And there was one very pretty girl wearing very tight jeans which showed just how completely bandy-legged she is.

I gather Summer is meant to end on Tuesday, anyway. It's a shame, because I've actually done reasonably well on the chocolate front over the past couple of days, but I'm sure the rain clouds will bring a relapse. And at least it will mean I don't have to figure out how to make my chunky, neon-white legs fit to face the world...

Bits and Bobs

I reminded myself today that I don't actually like Toblerones. I was in Waitrose and couldn't figure out what kind of chocolate I actually wanted, so I ended up getting a Toblerone because they were half price. It was a relatively small one, so I didn't gouge chunks out of the roof of my mouth trying to eat it (which I remember as a general Toblerone problem, from the last one I had about ten years ago). It just didn't taste very nice.

I still ate it, though.

This recipe, incidentally, does taste very nice indeed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/whitechocolateandmin_87593.shtml

It's like soft, creamy polo mints: although if you are using posh mint flavouring from Waitrose you need a half teaspoon rather than a quarter. And you need to avoid white chocolate with vanilla seeds in it, as otherwise it looks grubby. It makes more than the recipe says it does, too: I reckon it would have done about 9 70ml shot glasses. If you are really and truly only feeding 6 (or fewer) it would probably be better to use a medium sized egg, and cut the quantities to 200g chocolate/ 200 ml cream. That way you don't have a spare 150g of chocolate to somehow get rid of, either.

I'm actually thinking about trying to give up chocolate again. Part of the problem with Lent is that it doesn't mean anything to me, apart from the fact that the husband tends to behave a bit oddly. The Take That tour, however, is definitely a religious experience... and it starts next week.

Composite Obsessions

Now, I love chocolate. And I also love Take That. And I can think of a number of ways in which I would really, really love to combine them.

This, however, isn't one of them:
http://www.m-ms.com.au/

Don't get me wrong: the dance moves are great, but the voice makes my ears hurt. And why the hell is the yellow one the lead singer? I hate yellow ones.

Aftermath

As I am sure will have become apparent, I failed. My chocolate-free Lent lasted two weeks, and ended ignominiously with a bar of Lindt Excellence Milk bought in a convenience store near Baron's Court Tube station. I'm not particularly good at dealing with failure, so I decided to just disappear and pretend that it had never happened.

But the reality is that the fight goes on. Even if I didn't manage to give up chocolate, I did manage to give up chocolate chip cookies - I didn't even make a batch of those until the weekend before last (and I used Cote d'Or chocolate, which was on special offer somewhere or other, but was still a mistake. Because of the way that they emboss the elephants on it, it splits when you try to chop it so that you end up with thin flakey bits rather than chunks). I resisted the 1/3 off Galaxies in Waitrose this morning, and am now planning on attempting the Nigella white chocolate mint shots for supper tomorrow night. With some extra white chocolate which I bought this morning, having already eaten the batch which I bought on Thursday...